Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How do I get random #s?
Message-ID: <9652@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 15 Feb 89 17:12:45 GMT
References: <19415@dhw68k.cts.com> <225800132@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 15

In article <225800132@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>Let me tell a little story: ...

Here's mine:  Long ago, in an agency far far away, I helped produce
reams of "random" teleprinter output which was intended to be used
as "background" into which "bust" samples were to be inserted.  The
"busts" represented output that would be obtained if certain items
or procedures in a cryptosystem broke down.  (All this was for
training cryptanalysis students in the visual recognition of
possible "busts" which would then be subjected to further analysis.)
The problem was, no matter how hard I worked to produce "random"
output using standard pseudo-random sequence generators, my output
exhibited regularities that the experienced instructors immediately
spotted as symptomatic of certain classes of "busts".  This rather
interfered with its use as random background...